Feed aggregator

Search engines like Google and chatbots like ChatGPT have a funny way of confirming our existing beliefs, researchers say.

Forgot Father's Day is right around the corner? Don't fret. There's still time to get these great gifts, all vetted by CNET's gifting experts.

Phoenix residents have several excellent ISPs to choose from. Whether you're looking for multi-gig fiber plans or low-cost fixed wireless, our broadband experts have found top options to meet your needs.

The latest upgrade for Apple's AI is drawing comparison to Google's Circle to Search.

At WWDC 2025 Apple has announced its next-generation of software including visionOS 26 – with Apple skipping ahead to version 26 for all of its software to unify its numbering system.

For Apple Vision Pro users this new software will bring with a bevy of excellent upgrades to your mixed reality experience, including plenty of new spatial tools to make photos, apps, and webpages more immersive than ever.

Apple’s also adding a much-needed gaming feature.

To help you get up to speed here are the 6 most important Apple Vision Pro updates you need to know from visionOS 26.

1. New capture device support

(Image credit: Apple)

With visionOS 26 the Apple Vision pro can now support 180-degree, 360-degree, and wide field-of-view videos and photos captured with Insta360, GoPro, and Canon devices. In other words, it's now a much better companion for the best 360 cameras.

This will allow you to better immerse yourself in the action cam content you’ve captured on vacation so you can relive the adventure you went on when you’re back home.

2. PlayStation controller support

(Image credit: Apple)

Following months of teases from leakers, Apple has finally announced that you can use PlayStation VR 2 Sense controllers with the Vision Pro – with Apple explaining they will allow developers to “deliver even more engaging gameplay experiences.”

Perhaps this means we’ll finally see more VR games finally get visionOS ports.

Interestingly, Sony doesn’t sell its PSVR 2 controllers separately from the headset – at least not at the time of writing. That may change following this reveal, but for now you’ll need to spend $399.99 / £399.99 / AU$649.00 on the full PSVR 2 setup to get controllers to take advantage of this update.

3. Immersive spatial scenes

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Thanks to a new generative AI algorithm, visionOS 26 is set to make spatial photos even more realistic – according to Apple. The AI will create new perspectives from your shots so you can lean into the immersive snaps you’ve captured with your iPhone 16.

It’s also improving the API for developers so they can enhance the Spatial scenes in their apps – such as improvements for Zillow’s Immersive app which will allow users to better digitally explore homes and apartments using their Vision pro headset.

4. Spatial everything

(Image credit: Apple)

Beyond improved spatial photos, Apple is bringing several other spatial upgrades to Vision Pro through visionOS 26.

Customizable widgets are on their way. You’ll be able to adjust their frame, color, and depth, plus Apple says they will integrate into your space, and reappear every time you put on your headset.

So far it has confirmed the Clock, Weather, Music, and Photos apps will support widgets on visionOS. So you can decorate your space with a beautiful spatial panorama, or hang a distinctive digital clock up to keep track of the time you’ve spent immersed.

Beyond widgets, Apple says visionOS 26 will introduce new options for Safari. Developers can now embed 3D objects and spatial scenes directly into web pages, and Apple says you’ll be able to cut out distractions as you use Safari to help you focus.

5. Shared spatial spaces

(Image credit: Apple)

If you and other Apple Vision Pro users are in the same space you’ll now be able to share the same spatial content and see it as if it were a real object in the room with you all.

This means you can all sit on the couch and enjoy the same 3D blockbuster, or collaborate with your coworkers on a project. You can also add remote participants via FaceTime.

6. Improved Personas

(Image credit: Apple)

Okay, enough spatial updates.

With visionOS 26, Apple is also set to make Personas look and feel more natural, and the difference is striking.

Personas look a lot less ghostly and have better hair, more well defined features, and generally look more like you rather than some kinda scary uncanny-valley dweller.

Smaller updates

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

A few smaller updates are on their way too, and I’ve recapped the most interesting ones here as a bonus seventh entry on this list.

Apple Intelligence will now support French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, along with non-US English in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK.

'Look to scroll' will allow you to use just your eyes to navigate apps, and you can better organize them with new folders tools.

Plus, Face ID-enabled iPhones with iOS 26 will be able to unlock even if you’re wearing a Vision Pro.

You might also like

• Every Apple Intelligence upgrade coming to your Apple devices in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and watchOS 26
• macOS Tahoe 26 announced at WWDC 2025 with a new look and new numbering scheme: these are the best features for your new Mac or MacBook
• Does your Apple Watch support watchOS 26? Here’s the full list of compatible Apple Watches (and which ones will miss out)

Apple put last year’s wonderkid, Apple Intelligence, firmly in the corner today and focused instead on iOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, macOS 26, and iPadOS 26 (all Apple’s new operating systems now have a new name, reflecting the year they will be most active in) at this year’s WWDC 2025.

In fact, the whole keynote built steadily to the real star of the show, the iPad. The new windowing system on the new iPadOS 26 looks like it finally makes it capable of switching between multiple running apps with ease, and also adds a menu bar, which is context sensitive to whichever app is in the foreground.

This essentially makes the humble iPad less of a large iPhone and more like an extremely lightweight and portable Mac. It won't run Mac software, of course, but it will finally work like one, especially when plugged into a keyboard and trackpad.

iPadOS 26 even gets its own version of the Preview app from macOS to look at PDFs with, and a new Files app that is more powerful and Finder-like.

The iPad upgrade got by far the most animated reaction from Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice President of Software Engineering.

Federighi enthused about the new iPadOS 26 with a passion I haven’t seen since he introduced Apple Intelligence to us last year, calling it “the biggest iPadOS release ever.”

And there was no new hardware from Apple either! I was hoping for at least an upgrade to HomePod, but everything this year was about the various Apple OSs.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar Where was the AI?

Where was Apple Intelligence in the keynote? It had a little recap right at the start, which focused on what Apple Intelligence features Apple had actually released over the course of the last year, you know, Genmoji, Writing Tools, Notification Summaries, etc, and then it just faded into the background.

Sure, Apple Intelligence was mentioned frequently throughout Apple’s keynote, powering some of the most innovative features on display, like Visual Intelligence now being available every time you take a screenshot, or the ability to suggest when a poll might be a good idea in a group chat, or even letting you create your own original chat backgrounds.

But Apple Intelligence, which last year was the new kid on the block, has now become just another part of the furniture of Apple’s operating systems.

There was no talk about a fully AI-powered Siri, or really any groundbreaking new Apple Intelligence features, although there were quite a few minor ones like Live Translation and new AI-powered Shortcuts.

(Image credit: Apple)Standing in the shadows

But perhaps the background is where Apple Intelligence really belongs? It’s fair to say that the world has gone crazy for AI, thanks to OpenAI and Google steaming ahead with ChatGPT and Gemini. It’s almost impossible for companies not to get swept up in the unlimited possibilities that AI offers.

And yet, are people actually asking for AI features in Macs, iPads, and iPhones? From all of the Apple Intelligence features that Apple has released over the last year, I don’t really use any of them regularly, if at all.

I played around with Genmoji for a day, then got bored. Notification summaries' attempts at summarizing very short text messages were so annoying, I’d rather just read the actual message, which in most cases were just a few words longer.

I do use AI every day, but I prefer to use it inside the fully-featured apps from Google and OpenAI, which work fine on my iPhone and contain advanced voice modes for natural human-like language interaction. This, for me, is where AI really shines, and not when it comes to trying to rewrite, or even read, my emails for me.

Apple did reveal one key detail at this year's WWDC 2025 that I think could change the game for Apple Intelligence. With iOS 26, Apple is making its Foundation AI Models Framework available to developers for the first time.

Now, while this doesn’t sound like big news right now, it’s going to mean that app developers are going to be able to integrate on-device AI into their apps going forward. The possibilities here are endless, and frankly, I think developers will do a better job than Apple has of coming up with creative ways to use AI.

At a time when investors must be starting to wobble as Apple seems to have dropped the ball on AI, by opening up its AI to developers ,Apple might have just secured its future.

You might also like

• iOS 26 is official – here are the 5 biggest new features coming to your iPhone
• macOS Tahoe 26 announced at WWDC 2025 with a new look and new numbering scheme: these are the best features for your new Mac or MacBook
• The 5 new Apple TV 4K features coming in tvOS 26 you need to know about

• Apple has just announced a new iOS 26 software update for iPhones
• One of the big changes is a redesign of Apple's Camera app
• New streamlined Photo and Videos modes to make it easier to use

The iPhone's Camera app has been treated to a generous helping of new features over the past few years, from Photographic Styles to Apple ProRaw. But one thing Apple has failed to do is organize all of these features in a way that makes any real intuitive sense – until now, thanks to iOS 26.

Now, instead of having a confusing row of eight features above the shutter button, which I often find myself accidentally scrolling though, Apple is cutting that initial menu down to two things – Photo and Video.

Apple says it's done this because they are, naturally, the two most commonly used Camera modes, and that spring clean has been a long time coming. Once you're in one of those two modes, you just swipe left or right to reveal the related modes within them.

For example, in video mode, swiping brings up both Slo-Mo and Cinematic mode – that's handy, because 'Cinematic' could be interpreted as a video or stills mode, but actually refers to Apple's computational bokeh during video.

(Image credit: Apple)

Perhaps even better, swiping up reveals a 'Liquid Glass' style menu (above) that's much clearer than the current confusing mess of arcane icons. Now, you get names alongside those modes, such as Styles (for Photographic Styles) and Aspect for the aspect ratio. It all looks like a small, but very welcome improvement.

Lastly, Apple has also tied up the video frame-rates and resolution menu. On iOS 18, those sit in the top-right corner of the app, and you don't get a drop-down menu to see the options to cycle though. But in iOS 26, a new frosted glass pane shows you all of the frame-rate options for each resolution.

It's an improvement, but where is the Pro mode?

(Image credit: Apple)

This iOS 26 refresh for the Camera app means that some features are a little more out of sight than before, but that's fine by me. It's been feeling increasingly cluttered and messy, with Apple slowly adding features to an interface that wasn't designed to house so many options.

But there's still one thing missing for me. I've been hoping that iPhones might get a Pro photo mode for a few years now, but there's unfortunately still no sign of one in iOS 26. Apple has shown signs of moving in that direction with video, but only with separate apps like Final Cut Pro for iPad.

To be fair, Apple has added a lot of pro-friendly photo features to iOS, many of which are hidden in its Settings menu. I've rounded up a lot of those tweaks in my guide to how to set up your iPhone 16 to take great photos in 2025.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

But one other simple solution to hiding the Camera app's clutter would be to have one more toggle that flips it between 'point-and-shoot' and 'Pro' modes. The iOS 26 redesign looks like a solid point-and-shoot experience, but a Pro mode (perhaps mapped to the Action button) could quickly turn it into something like a Fujifilm X100VI by bringing up extra controls such as manual focus or focus peaking.

That would be my ideal Camera app setup, effectively making the iPhone two cameras in one. But it's possible that Apple is concerned about 'Sherlocking' some of the best camera apps like ProCamera, Halide or Camera Obscura, which could be seen as a faux pas considering that many of these have starred in its annual App Store Awards.

(Sherlocking is the Apple community's word for when a popular app is killed by Apple offering the same functionality built into its software, named for a tool called Sherlock that was eclipsed by the Mac's Spotlight feature.)

Still, even though Apple hasn't a Pro mode to its Camera app this time, its iOS 26 makeover is still a welcome makeover that should make taking photos on iPhones that are compatible with the new OS a more fun (and less stressful) experience.

You might also like

• iOS 26 compatibility – does your iPhone support it? Here's the full list of supported devices
• Apple CarPlay just got 4 big free upgrades with iOS 26 – here's what you need to know
• iPad just won WWDC 2025 – here’s why the iPadOS upgrades just made me cry tears of joy

I might spend most of my time writing about Apple – I was following along with the WWDC show today, in fact – but my first computing experiences were of a decidedly Windows flavor. In fact, I’ve used Windows since Windows 95, but the first edition that I truly fell in love with was Windows 7.

But it wasn’t any of the new features or functionality that captured my attention at the time – it was the design. Windows 7 took Microsoft’s operating system from a staid, grey platform that could give itself boredom into one that was modern, sleek and classy, all in a single OS update.

The key element in this was Aero, Windows 7’s glass-like transparency effect. With this in place, colors subtly refracted through windows and title bars, and it all shimmered and shone in real time as you dragged your apps around your screen. For my design-obsessed young brain, it was a graphical marvel.

It was, to borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs, so good you wanted to lick it.

Naturally, I was devastated when Microsoft did away with this design, and I still don’t think the company has been able to match it in the decade and a half since.

Yet watching Apple unveil its new Liquid Glass design language during the company’s WWDC keynote today, I felt a sudden jolt of nostalgia. Here was a glassy, translucent interface that used light and colour to create gorgeous effects on your desktop. It was everything I loved from those halcyon Windows 7 days, back with new twists for a new era.

Who would have thought that Apple would bring back a Microsoft design with such aplomb?

More than just fashion

(Image credit: Apple)

Of course, Liquid Glass is likely to provide plenty of fuel for those critics who allege that all Apple does is copy other people’s work. Yet not only does Liquid Glass show what a braindead take this is, it also highlights exactly the kind of thinking that goes into all of Apple’s designs – and showcase a key difference between its mindset and that of Microsoft.

Because as much as I absolutely adored Windows 7’s look and feel, Aero was essentially a cosmetic coat of paint. It was about looking great – and sure, it sumptuously smashed it in that department – but it didn’t go much beyond that.

Liquid Glass, on the other hand, is about form and function. It’s not just a pretty face (although it is that too in spades) but offers much more on closer inspection.

For instance, Apple made a point of showing the responsiveness of its new interface. Swipe up or down and your iPhone’s floating menu panels automatically adjust their size. Resizing something will prompt it to flex with your mouse or finger. It’s all designed to impact the way you use your device, not just how you look at it.

(Image credit: Apple)

This hits a core principle that has driven Apple since the days of Steve Jobs: “design is how it works.” Many people think that “design” just means making something pretty, and that’s all there is to it. But design should never exist just to serve itself – it must serve the user, and that means you have to create something that works amazingly well. Design is what makes that happen.

Steve Jobs summed it up when he launched the original iMac. In response to Microsoft’s Bill Gates claiming Apple had merely put a new lick of paint on its old devices, Jobs shot back: “The thing that our competitors are missing is that they think it’s about fashion, and they think it’s about surface appearance. They say, ‘We’ll slap a little color on this piece of junk computer, and we’ll have one too’.”

In other words, you can’t put lipstick on a pig. Dress up an awful device and you still have an awful device underneath. Something must work brilliantly and look great in order to be designed well.

This idea is what makes me so excited about Liquid Glass. Not only is it a revival of the elegant transparency effects of Windows 7’s Aero, but it actually adds extra functionality. It gives you new ways to use your Mac or your iPhone, and it looks stunning while doing it.

Design is how it works. Liquid Glass just proved it.

Read more from WWDC 2025...

• macOS Tahoe 26 announced at WWDC 2025 with a new look and new numbering scheme
• iPad just won WWDC 2025 – here’s why the iPadOS upgrades just made me cry tears of joy
• The 5 new Apple TV 4K features coming in tvOS 26 that you need to know about

The United States hosts many students and scientific researchers from the world's two largest countries, India and China. The U.S. is seen as one of the best places to get and education and on the cutting edge of innovation. But a series of moves by the Trump administration, including greater scrutiny of those applying for student visa and, in the case of China, threats to revoke some visas, are making some rethink their plans.

Commentary: Even the company's execs seemed to know it was a dud

Animated TV dads from The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show are reportedly headed to Fortnite.

• Report claims small drives face 4x the failure risk compared to their high-capacity counterparts
• Unsafe eject practices raise data loss risk by a staggering 75%, according to researchers
• Frequent transfers and careless use leave tiny drives vulnerable to serious file system damage

New research has revealed a concerning trend in external storage reliability: small-capacity external hard drives are reportedly significantly more prone to failure than their high-capacity counterparts.

Based on data gathered from over three million storage devices in the first quarter of 2025, the report from the EaseUS Data Recovery Lab claims disks under 64GB are approximately four times more likely to suffer data loss compared to drives exceeding 4TB.

The reasons behind this disparity lie in both usage patterns and hardware limitations. Smaller drives are often used for quick file transfers or as temporary backups, making them subject to frequent plugging and unplugging.

Usage habits heighten vulnerability

“Frequent plugging and unplugging, high temperature and high humidity, and sudden power failure during data transmission may lead to file system errors, partition table damage, and data loss,” the report explains.

Users who neglect safe eject practices further compound the issue. The data indicates that logical errors from unsafe removal exceed the average risk by 75%.

From a hardware standpoint, cost-cutting measures in smaller drives can result in lower-quality components.

“Some manufacturers compromise in manufacturing processes and materials to cut costs, such as using low-quality controller chips,” EaseUS warns.

These weaknesses naturally translate into higher failure rates, particularly under prolonged or intensive use.

The file system is another contributing factor. While high-capacity drives often use more robust systems like GPT, NTFS, or exFAT, which are better suited to managing large volumes of data, small-capacity disks still frequently rely on FAT32.

"When storing a large number of small files, the partition table needs to be updated frequently, and the risk of metadata overwriting is high,” the report notes.

Interestingly, SSDs show similar trends, though the failure rate gap is less dramatic. External SSDs under 256GB are about twice as likely to fail as those over 4TB.

This is attributed to similar factors: frequent use, fewer flash chips, and less advanced controllers.

“Small-capacity SSDs have fewer chips. Once they are damaged, the risk of data loss is higher,” the findings state.

Although SSDs are generally more resilient and lack moving components, the report cautions against rough usage and advises careful management.

Users are encouraged to stick to safe handling practices and consider purchasing high-capacity storage from reputable brands to lower their risk.

Using a high-quality portable SSD or external HDD will reduce the chance of data loss, but no solution is perfect. Therefore, having access to the best data recovery software is a wise precaution, especially when dealing with logical errors or accidental deletions.

You might also like

• These are the fastest external HDDs you can buy right now
• And these are the best business laptops available today
• Beyond AI-powered cybersecurity: why context and visibility are still a CISO’s top priority

Apple previewed the next version of its Mac operating system at WWDC. See the new look and features coming to Macs this fall and find out if your current Mac can run it.

Commentary: It sounds like a recipe for disaster if you have a smaller screen.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 260, for June 10.

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 10, No. 730.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 464 for June 10.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,452 for June 10.

Liquid Glass, Liquid Glass, Liquid Glass, and oh, did we mention Liquid Glass?

It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively failed to show actual malice.'/>

Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit was in response to Lively accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.

(Image credit: Cindy Ord)